International Assets Investment Management LLC Raises Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 9,061.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 26,752 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 26,460 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $6,390,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.4% in the third quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,417 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Transform Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Transform Wealth LLC now owns 1,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $454,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% in the third quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC now owns 6,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,490 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $356,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,771 shares of company stock valued at $2,307,406. 1.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $222.53 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $237.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.86 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The business’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 37.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Company Profile

Verisk Analytics, Inc provides data analytics and technology solutions to the insurance markets in the United States and internationally. It offers policy language, prospective loss costs, policy writing and rating rules, and various underwriting solutions for risk selection and segmentation, pricing, and workflow optimization; property- and auto- specific rating and underwriting information solutions that allows clients to understand, quantify, underwrite, mitigate, and avoid potential loss for risks; catastrophe modeling solutions, which enables companies to identify, quantify, and plan for the financial consequences of catastrophes for use by insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, financial institutions, and governments.